Randomness and Thoughts on a WIP

After taking a few days off from blogging (I know) thanks to the bubonic plague moving through my house I’m back! [Slight exaggeration, but still… sick and pregnant is no fun, sick and pregnant while taking care of a healthy three year old is a challenge, then being a recuperating sick person who also happens to be seven months pregnant while taking care of a sick three year old just killed my week..] Anywho, it’s been an eventful week for being so uneventful. You know what I mean. It has, however, allowed for a bit of time and thought as to my wip.

Even before this rather absurd experience at my son’s pediatrician’s office this past week I have been struck by several issues pertaining to the ms. It’s not the plot per say, there are no obvious holes or non-world appropriate going ons, but rather it is strangely a treatise standing up for doctors. I almost intended it that way, kind of. The issue is that now I am having a hard time thinking of anything positive to say about the industry and, make no mistake, it is an industry. Never before have I had an issue with this. Working for doctors for the last ten years had put me in the frame of mind that there are some bad ones, but there are certainly some good ones. Now, after having personally been treated rather poorly as well as bearing witness to what a pediatrician’s office can do – well, I find myself lacking defense for the profession at large.

To be fair, the underlying premise of the ms still holds (not getting into it right now, tyvm), but my disillusionment needs to be exorcised via a different ms I think. I’ve given up on my hope of torturing a certain individual only to have now found myself in this quandary. Being grateful to be writing the pov of the mostly villain right now does help, but the last section was supposed to be the pov of a hero. A doctor. Perhaps it’s time to own my own little Inner Geek, embrace her, and draw a doctor in my imagination worthy of heroism. And if anyone has a good story of a doctor, please, by the love all that is holy, share it. Puhleeeeeaaaasssse!

Anyone else had these problems? Earth shaking revelations that shake up your work? How do you regain the passion and zeal for your current work if/when this happens?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 at 5:00 am and posted in Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

7 responses to “Randomness and Thoughts on a WIP”

Ooh, that is quite the quandary. I have put aside manuscripts when I felt frustrated, or even bored with them….and when I come back after a breathing space (one time, several months worth), I can see things from a different perspective.

Hang in there….

Sometimes I’ve had dreams that put my characters into a new light and inspired me all over again….

Not fair for me to answer because my mom’s one. BUT to speak to the writer quandary. I think that’s a great place to be in while writing a hero or any character. Not being totally in agreement with him/her means you’ve got to convince not just the reader but yourself. You have to make him/her an actual person with foibles and an actual personality. When I was working on a novel steeped in social commentary, I was surprised to find the opinions of two characters seemed similar on the surface but that the experience/generation of one made it sort of culminate differently? And she had to be heard, even though it was the other character I agreed with. Does that make sense?

I think it always makes a more powerful story to have both sides of an argument recommended. Sticking up for doctors is fine, but there’s more depth to a work if you have both sticking up for them and insight into all the things that go wrong. Conflict on the level of ideas can be really valuable in a story.

There are good doctors out there although they are sometime hard to locate. From my experience, the ones who are practicing at the hospital clinics genuinely care. After all, it can be because of the pay. I know of one who checked me for a breast lump after I was told that I needed a biopsy. He’s an internist. After his examination, he said, no, I didn’t need a biopsy. I had swollen milk glands is all. He saved me money and heartache.

Hi,
I feel sorry for introducing myself at a time like this. Hope things get better for you soon.
I was just browsing through your blog and I really like it. Since I am also working on my novel, I could completely relate to many a things I found here.
I am going to be regular visitor 🙂
Cheers